One of my Koa suppliers in Hawaii sent me some small pieces of Hawaiian Silky Oak as samples of another wood that he thought would be good for handle materials. The coloring was kind of bland and the pieces were under 1" thick so I set the wood aside and forgot about it. A while back I started getting requests from some of my customers who had been buying knife handle blocks and cutting them up to make pens with. One week there were about ten requests so I figured I would get some pen blank sized pieces cut and in the web store. The Silky Oak was the perfect thickness so I cut it up but had it dyed to hopefully make it look better. This is how it turned out. The black stuff looks kind of like carbon fiber to me.

The pen blanks are about 6" long by just over 3/4" square. Would they work with paring knives? or ferrule material?
Do you guys like the look enough that maybe I should get some bigger stuff for regular sized knife handle blocks?
Please let me know what you think.

Not gonna lie, those look terrible to me. One looks burned, the other looks like A Night at the Roxbury.

tgraypots

04-28-2012, 10:02 PM

Gosh, makes me want to get a mini-lathe and start turning pens. I really like 1, 2 and 4 down in the blue.

apicius9

04-28-2012, 10:03 PM

Not a fan either, let's hope the pen people have a use for them. A bit too small for wa handles IMHO. I tried 7/8" pen blanks but by the time you have sanded them into shape and polished them, they make for really small handles.

Stefan

Burl Source

04-28-2012, 10:07 PM

With the blue ones the pink spots are areas of the wood that had reddish flecks that resisted the dye.
The darker blue ones were more or less colorless areas of the wood.
Those portions have a color change when the light hits from different angles going from blue to purple and some green.

Vertigo

04-28-2012, 10:16 PM

You guys are nuts, those black ones are awesome.

:curse:

Johnny.B.Good

04-28-2012, 10:17 PM

Not my style, but the first/top two blue ones are kind of cool looking. Maybe the dark black piece at the top too.

PierreRodrigue

04-28-2012, 10:52 PM

I could make some of the blue work...

Mingooch

04-28-2012, 10:54 PM

Black ones remind me of a black and white photo. Others are a little 60s ish to me. Not my taste, but I am sure some will like them.

tk59

04-28-2012, 11:53 PM

Definitely not my style but I'm sure there are plenty of folks that would like that stuff. I'd probably pick up a piece or two just for fun.

Taz575

04-29-2012, 03:45 AM

I like those, especially the solid blue!! They may be a tad small for a ferrule, but it would depend on the handle shape. Paring knives, they may work for rehandling some Western style paring knives as those have fairly narrow handle tangs.

DarrenSwerid

04-29-2012, 11:24 AM

I think you could have a few knife sized ones on stock. All of our tastes are different. I personally like the black ones. The blues ones are unique and someone out there would love them.

TB_London

04-29-2012, 11:57 AM

People by Itou's... The psychedelic blues and purple may appeal to some, though I've tried pen blanks and they are a bit too small for handles IMO

add

04-29-2012, 12:08 PM

You guys are nuts, those black ones are awesome.

:curse:

Agreed.

I'd love to see one of those mated to a kuro-uchi or hammer finished blade... don't think shiny would work, imo.

Mike Davis

04-29-2012, 08:35 PM

I really like the black stuff. I would invest in a few blocks of it.

RRLOVER

04-29-2012, 09:07 PM

I do like the color and figure,it is the size that is an issue.

Burl Source

04-29-2012, 09:25 PM

I will see what I can do about getting some of this big enough for knife handle material.
I put the pen blanks in the store and the weird pink and purple ones sold right away.
Where else are you going to find wood this weird?

tgraypots

04-29-2012, 09:32 PM

I bought some blue dyed wood from you last fall. It must have been some of the experimental stuff -- dark, indigo blue with some gold. The folks who now have the knife love it.